Matrix and the University of Kentucky Libraries’ Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History were recently awarded a National Leadership Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for ongoing development of the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS). The OHMS is a web-based system that provides word-level search capability, allowing users to search more easily for specific terms within recorded interviews, and time-correlated transcript or index to know exactly at what times in the interview these terms occur.

The project team, which also includes partner libraries at Baylor University, Oklahoma State University, and Cleveland State University, will further develop the OHMS into an open-source software tool that will be more compatible and interoperable with a variety of digital library and content management systems. The project team will also produce multimedia tutorials on the use, installation, and deployment of the OHMS tool. This tool will enable a wide variety of libraries and archives to enrich the use of digital oral history collections, inexpensively and efficiently enhancing access to and discovery of oral history online.

As part of MATRIX’s collaborative IMLS grant to develop best practices for conducting oral history in a digital age, Scott Pennington, Head of MATRIX’s Digital Lab, traveled to New York recently to meet with the Oral History in the Digital Age (OHDA) Video curating group and advisors. Participants, including collaborators from the private sector as well as Columbia University Library, began to outline and write best practices for collecting and curating digital video for oral historians. The group’s ultimate goal is to identify new methods for collecting, curating, and distributing data as oral history moves from analog audio to digital video recording. The OHDA best practices guide is on target to enter final draft status by the end of April.

MATRIX in cooperation with MSU’s Department of History and African Studies Center, has won a $750,000 award from the US Department of Education to partner with African scholars to collect oral histories, folklore, and songs from Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania.  Over a four-year period, the African Oral Narratives project will digitize and provide free web access to 20 collections of oral narratives in 16 African languages.  These audio and video materials can be used by students, teachers, and researchers to document indigenous knowledge and democratize history by representing the voices of ordinary men and women often left out of the official written record.

To learn more about the African Oral Narratives project, see MSU News.